He looked like he had a decent head clash in the opening seconds of the VFL match versus Footscray. It was a slippery night, only one player exceeded 23 disposals. His “bad” game (ranked third of 46 for Dreamteam) dragged him down to an average of 31 VFL disposals for the year.

Our inside mids are getting a lot of first use from Bellys taps and winning clearances and plenty of contested ball against top teams, Jake Stringer is coming good at stoppages so it would seem our need for a stoppage specialist is not as great as we once thought. Besides Myers is available now and he seems to be a walk up start in the AFL team when fit.

Based on that I don’t expect to see Clarke playing in the AFL any time soon . He hopes to get a “couple of games” in 2018, in a year when we will be playing the kids.

Clarke said he was “pretty stoked” to extend his time as a Bomber and is happy to have the contract out of the way midway through the season.

“I love this footy club, so just staying here for another year at least, (I’m) really excited,” Clarke said.

Good lad! Keep busting your backside and win your spot back through weight of numbers. I hope to see him feature regularly in the back end of the season, especially if as expected finals is out of the equation.

He looked like he had a decent head clash in the opening seconds of the VFL match versus Footscray. It was a slippery night, only one player exceeded 23 disposals. His “bad” game (ranked third of 46 for Dreamteam) dragged him down to an average of 31 VFL disposals for the year.

Id like to see Clarke back in this week add some more grunt and he would be full of confidence after signing new contract.

He debuted early in his second season and got forced out for the reigning Rising star, just two games ago. Langford has been on the list for years and forced to fight his way back in time and again. I can’t see the comparison.

Most of the players in the AFL would have gone back to the state leagues shortly after making their debut. At this stage there’s nothing unusual about what Clarke has experienced.

Last year Clarke was playing most of the year in the VFL as a high half forward and achieving numbers typical of that position, but not hitting the scoreboard . This year , Clarke was averaging over 30 disposals, playing as a fulltime inside mid before his AFL debut in the the Geelong game
In the Footscray VFL game he appeared to be less than full time as a mid and was playing as a defensive flanker at times. This might account for the reduced numbers ( 20).

More than likely he is being given experience in defence to round out his game because the way we rotate numbers through the midfield, he is not going to get the minutes in the midfield that other teams give to the likes of Mitchell, Oliver, Kennedy, Pendlebury et al, enabling them to average 30+ disposals when you add in their uncontested work.

The problem for Clarke is to find the best position for him when he is not on the ball. It looks to me like he will be playing minutes in defence in the VFL over the rest of the season.

Frankly…I don’t see a big difference between the potential of Mutch versus Clarke…but Mutch got two more years, Clarke got one more year.

And I think it is human nature to view your own performance in a slightly better light than those around you do…so I wouldn’t be surprised if Clarke was slightly peeved at not getting a two year extension like Mutch. He didn’t seem effervescent in that video.